On March 6 the Trump campaign will host an “Evangelicals for Trump Event” at the staunchly anti-LGBTQ Solid Rock Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. For years, the church has perpetuated dangerous and hateful messages about the LGBTQ community.
From condemning “limp wristed” worship leaders who “dance like a fairy” to rallying around a disgraced county clerk who went to jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, the church is rooted in anti-LGBTQ sentiments.
Related: Here are all the times the Trump administration has attacked LGBTQ rights since he became President
In 2010, Church founder, the late Reverend Lawrence Bishop, told the Springfield News Sun, “We are not against (gays), but we are against lifestyles that go against the word of God. If we don’t believe what he believes, we might as well turn that (church) building into a hay barn.”
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In 2015, The Times-Tribune reported that between 50 and 60 Solid Rock Church members participated in a rally supporting anti-LGBTQ Kentucky County Clerk Kim Davis, who refused to provide marriage licenses to same-sex couples in direct defiance of a federal court order.
And it only gets more extreme from there. A 2019 video shows the late Bishop’s son, Pastor Lawrence Bishop II, criticizing other churches for trying to be “hip” by having young leaders who are “effeminate looking.”
“I’m telling you,” he said, “If you have to ask if the dude’s gay, he don’t need to be in the platform. I’ve never seen so many homosexual spirits on worship leaders in my life. I’ve never seen so many lesbian drummers in my life at big conferences with their flat top haircuts wearing clothes like a man, a chain wallet and work boots…is anybody else seeing what in this world is happening when you have a guy that’s limp wristed in his skinny pants and dancing like a fairy on the stage and people are standing there worshipping? Are you kidding me? What is wrong with pastors?”
Televangelist and Trump spiritual advisor, Paula White, will be a special guest at the Solid Rock rally. She has been criticized for her extreme religious views as well as for preaching that God rewards the faithful with wealth and riches—and thus convincing her followers to donate large sums of money.
The Trump campaign’s decision to align itself with the Solid Rock Church is one in a long series of anti-LGBTQ moves from the administration throughout Trump’s presidency.
